The bank's profits were 7.2% higher than the same period last year. Goldman set aside $4.34bn (£2.83bn) to pay 32,000 employees in the first quarter, equal to $135,594 each. The sum is about 1% less than a year earlier as the firm employed 400 fewer people.

Goldman's profits were helped by double-digit revenue growth in stock and bond underwriting, which made up for lacklustre trading results, usually a strong area for the firm. Debt underwriting produced record quarterly net revenues of $694m. Cost cuts, including the job cuts, also helped the bottom line. Operating expenses fell 0.8% to $6.72bn.

Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's chairman and chief executive, said he was pleased with the bank's performance but warned there could be trouble ahead as a result of possible "macroeconomic instability".

During a conference call with analysts, its chief financial officer, Harvey Schwartz, said: "Macroeconomic uncertainty has been an understandable and persistent theme following the financial crisis and has quite naturally led many of our clients to approach strategic decisions with greater caution." Asked when the lucrative mergers and acquisitions business might pick up, Schwartz said: "I wish I could tell you when."

Goldman's rivals have also beaten analysts' first-quarter expectations even as the wider US economy remains troubled. JP Morgan Chase, the biggest US bank by assets, reported earnings on Friday that beat estimates, and on Monday Citigroup reported that its net income had soared 30%.

Bank of America, the second-largest lender, and Morgan Stanley, the sixth-biggest bank, release their results later this week.

Goldman reported $10.1bn in revenue in the quarter ending 31 March, almost flat from a year ago, when revenue came in at $10bn, but better than analysts' projections of around $8.35bn.

The bank's investing and lending operations posted revenue of $2.07bn, up 8% compared with the same period in 2012. Investment banking revenue increased 36%, to $1.57bn, boosted by the record debt underwriting results.

Net revenue in Goldman's bonds, currencies and commodities unit fell by 7% to $3.2bn, from the period a year earlier. The fall was a disappointment for one of Goldman's powerhouse units. The bank said the decline reflected "significantly lower net revenues in interest rate products compared with a strong first quarter of 2012".

Schwartz said he expected the bank to increase its trading business as higher costs and increased regulation forces out competition. "It feels like there is reasonable market share opportunity, given the environment," he said.

Last month the Federal Reserve told Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan they would have to resubmit plans to pass newly imposed stress tests meant to assess the banks' abilities to withstand future market shocks. Blankfein said at the time that the bank would resubmit its plans by the end of the third quarter.